Xbox LIVE may have started off as a way to bring Halo multiplayer features to other games, but it’s evolved past its video game roots into one of the most popular entertainment subscription services in the world. In the wake of this week’s E3 revelations, Microsoft explains how Xbox LIVE is expanding its offerings on the Xbox 360, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8, in the process confirming some news you read about here first.

Microsoft corporate vice president of Xbox LIVE Marc Whitten provided the update in an open letter to Xbox fans that was posted to a corporate blog. “Thanks to Xbox LIVE members like you we’re redefining the future of the living room, and I want to take this opportunity to share a more detailed look at what’s in store for entertainment on Xbox,” he wrote.

Coming non-gaming changes to Xbox LIVE include:

International Expansion of Kinect Voice Control and Search. Kinect motion control may be a flash in the pan, but as I’ve noted before the hidden killer feature of this hardware add-on isn’t hand flailing, its voice control. Of course, that only matter to you if Kinect speaks your language. So this year, Microsoft is expanding its voice search capabilities to 12 new countries while further expanding its Xbox LIVE service on Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox 360 in English, French, Spanish and Chinese worldwide.

Internet Explorer for Xbox. Microsoft is making Internet Explorer available for the Xbox, as you probably know, and while it will feature the IE 9 rendering engine, the Xbox version of the browser will closely resemble the Metro look and feel of IE 10 on Windows 8. And, as Whitten notes, “with the power of Kinect and Xbox SmartGlass, you’ll able to navigate websites with any device or the sound of your voice.”

Favorites. Microsoft is evolving its content pinning capability, available currently on the Xbox 360, into something called Favorites. Whitten explains: “Favorites allows you to personalize the dashboard by saving your movies, TV, games, music and the web right to the home screen in the dashboard. Favorites will make it easier and faster than ever to get to your favorite content on Xbox and Xbox LIVE.”

Xbox apps for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.As I previously noted in my Xbox Music Preview, Windows Phone 8 (and the Xbox 360) will also be getting the same Xbox apps that we’re seeing on Windows 8: Xbox Games, Xbox Music, and Xbox Video.

Improved Bing Search on Xbox 360. As highlighted during Microsoft’s E3 media briefing, the Bing Search features on the Xbox 360 are being evolved to include genre search in addition to the currently available movie, TV show, and actor search. Somewhat obvious, but welcome.

Xbox 360 Dashboard performance. Anyone who uses the Xbox 360, especially as a media hub, knows that the Dashboard is as slow as molasses. Whitten promises that will change, though I suspect a new console will be required before it’s truly “fast and fluid.” “We continue to invest in improving the performance of the Xbox dashboard,” he says, vaguely. “Whether you’re getting in and out of entertainment applications, browsing the games library or navigating large entertainment catalogs, we are working to make these experiences quick and seamless.”

What I Use

Like many, I was hoping to see a new Lumia flagship before the end of 2014, and while I was pleasantly surprised in some ways by both the Lumia 735 and 830, neither offers the level of performance or best-in-market camera quality I had come to expected from Microsoft/Nokia's high-end devices. So I pulled the trigger on an unlocked Windows Phone flagship that will hopefully take me through at least the first half of this year. Or until Microsoft gets off its low-end fixation and satisfies the needs of its biggest fans....More

It's been a while since the last What I Use, but there haven't been many major changes since late last year: Surface Pro 3 has become my go-to travel companion, I've added a third cellphone line for testing Windows Phone, Android and iPhone side-by-side, and have rotated through some new tablets and other devices. We've also switched from FIOS to Comcast and added to our set-top box collection....More